Weigh currently around 250, 5'7 in height Lowest I ever got two years ago was 235
I keep yoyoing on weight my whole life I fall off the workout wagon and spiral
I've been working out consistently for a month swimming, hiking or running and doing weights, I feel healthier I'm much more active, and feel less winded
But I may have an undiagnosed eating disorder, i can stress eat on anxious levels, before I could drop weight easier but I'm worried my weight is catching up to me because it's not shedding like it used too.
I'm very self conscious about my weight, and I want to be healthy in the event of anything in the future. My eating is starting to cost me and I'm starting to realize this is detrimental to my overall well-being.
Any recommendations?
I swim laps for at least 45min to hr Or run 3 miles Or hike 2-5 miles depending on time before sunset
Edit: i also added burpees recently when I don't have time to do everything in the gym, because I do work and go to school as well.
Plus I always do some weights at the gym with a warmup full body workout.
My eating is destroying my progress. I also do not get good sleep, I'm trying to work on that.
Count calories/macros. In my experience exercise doesn't help without counting calories. After a few days of exercise your appetite catches up to the calories expended.
Eat a lot of protein, 1-2 grams per pound of body weight per day. Protein calories are more satiating than calories from carbs, you will feel more full from the same amount of calories. High fiber foods like beans are also satiating.
Intermittent fasting can help by reducing the hours per day you eat. You can start with 8/16 (don't eat for 8 hours of your day, the same hours each day) and gradually reduce until you start losing some weight. I found that after a doing it for a few weeks, I was much less hungry during my fasting hours. I do 16/8 now(I only eat between 9am and 5pm), and rarely feel hungry outside those hours.
Don't be too hard on yourself. You don't want to make small mistakes into progress halting failures. Play the long game and don't focus too hard on the numbers on the scale. Make small changes that you can maintain for the long term.
Thank you, I'll give it a try, the only times I have lost weight in the past has been from excessive fasting but I can give intermittent fasting a try
So, details on the eating side would help responses.
Any training/coaching ongoing on the mental side of things (and suspected disorder)?
Honestly I get anxious or depressed and I start eating unnecessarily even if I already ate well or am not hungry.
I'll just over eat in general whether it's junk food, sweets, or just eating again when I'm not hungry.
I'm going back to therapy and I'm gonna start seeing a nutritionist. ADHD diagnosed as well
nutritionist
if you're in the US, the legitimate profession is "dietician". any snakeoil quack can claim to be a nutritionist.
I just know they were referred from my Dr during a physical, so a nutritionist would still just be a dietician?
no, a nutritionist could be anyone. they could be a complete quack telling you to eat only meat, or they could be a registered dietician with an educated professional opinion who advertises as nutritionist because regular people think "nutritionist" is the professional title.
you have to investigate this person's certifications yourself unfortunately
It's really good to have a support system like that.
Calories in/out should be established at some point but it may lead to obsessive/disorderly behavior unless those underlying elements are in balance.
Single times of overeating are human and won't make a dent in your progress, and smaller consistent deficits are better to sustain than trying to reach too far too fast.
Some people find alternative behaviours for those situations where they used to eat extra. And with some people it could be as simple as keeping a regular eating interval so blood sugar levels won't cause those moments where they'd overindulge.
Keep on figuring things out piece by piece. There's no hurry
I'm trying to walk or do something else when I would usually eat, i have two dogs that require long walks in anyways
Could the problem be the environment you’re in? If you’re stress eating a lot, it could be because you’re in a stressful environment? In my own life I’ve noticed people seemingly effortlessly losing weight simply because they managed to leave a terrible situation and find themselves in a better one.
If you can’t get out of this situation, my advice would be to take it easy and don’t be hard on yourself, especially since it seems to me like you’re doing the best you can.
I do know my lack of rest and stress may be playing a big factor, I am currently working on removing myself from these situations
Aside from the tips on eating more satiating foods like protein, healthy fats and fibre, the book Intuitive Eating has a section on strategies you can use to recognise, and stop the habit of using food as an emotional coping mechanism. I heard the 4th edition took out a bunch of stuff that extremely sensitive people found fatphobic, so I'd recommend going to the 3rd edition (you can find a free copy on anna's archive)
The best you can do to deal with stress eating is to plan for such a contingency. Make sure your fridge and pantry are stocked with complex carb snacks, and make food that is too caloric dense less available. Your lizard brain will be less likely to want to binge if food isn't as easily accessible. Complement snacks with protein so you get satisfied faster, stuff like eating a piece of chocolate with a pint of greek yogurt and a bunch of splenda REALLY REALLY hits the spot without putting on a lot of calories, there are probably a bunch of low-cal high-protein recipes online which you can try for emergency cravings. I have to disagree a little bit with calorie counting, only do this if you're really unsure as to where the extra calories are coming from and until you get a feel for caloric contents on food, but in my case it just made my ED worse in the long run, so I'd be cautious if you think you have an ED already. And yeah sleep well, not sleeping well makes you waaay hungrier, but you already know this. The most important thing is to not beat yourself up if you end up binging, it happens. There's really no hurry and you should take your time.
Would add to others suggestions on calorie counting, at least for a time. Just get a good idea of where your calories are coming from and just how much it is. For example, that 45 min swim might be 500 calories burned or so and that's good. But one slice of pizza can easily be 500 calories as well. Might help you realize just how many calories you are stress eating you are doing and help you make more informed decisions when you do it.
Everyone's calorie in/out will be different, so you'll need to establish your own baseline and work from there. You can get a cheap Apple Watch for like $150, which is a lot for sure, but it's a great investment for something that will give you an idea of what type of calorie burning you are doing.
But, as another commentator mentioned, stress eating is not a super logical thing. You might very well know how many calories are in the bag of Doritos or whatever and still choose to have it not based on any sort of informed thing but because your mental state isn't in a place to make an informed decision. The regular sleep will definitely help with that, but you may want to spend some of your workout time doing some mindfulness instead or something like that. As someone just looking to be in shape, you really only need to exercise each muscle group a couple times a week to see progress, with all the swimming, burpees, weight training, hiking, etc it sounds like you are definitely getting enough activity. You can see more about frequency in working out here: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/more-is-more/ Stronger By Science is more targeted at folks looking to get very strong, so the big take away for you is that twice a week on a lift is plenty for you.
Last thing I would recommend is get the junk food out of your house. Force yourself to put in some real effort if you want to have some. Sometimes just putting a walk to the corner store between you and the junk food is enough to give you time to really think about it and realize it isn't worth it. You can get yourself some healthier snacks around the house like fruit, salt-free nuts and legumes, etc. Another commenter recommend protein calories and I half way agree with that, they are more filling for sure. However, I do think you can really benefit from filling your stomach with a lot of vegetables. No exaggeration, six servings of vegetables a day can fill up your stomach and keep you from being hungry for junk food.
Good luck!
Thanks I appreciate it, I don't buy junk food for the house anymore but it's hard not to buy It when I'm out